Samuel Arnold (Lincoln conspirator)

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Samuel Bland Arnold

Samuel Arnold after his arrest, 1865
Born September 6, 1838(1838-09-06)
Georgetown, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died September 21, 1906 (aged 68)

Samuel Bland Arnold (September 6, 1838 – September 21, 1906) was involved in the group to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He and the other conspirators, John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Powell, Michael O'Laughlen and John Surratt, were to kidnap Lincoln and hold him for ransom in the exchange for the Confederate prisoners that were in Washington D.C.. This was attempted two times and failed due to Lincoln not being where they thought he would be. He and O'Laughlen dropped out of the conspiracy when the prisoner exchange program started. On April 14, 1865 Booth murdered Lincoln and was on the run with Herold. Arnold was placed under arrest on suspicion. He was actually relieved when he was arrested. During the trial one the chief witness was Louis J. Weichmann one of Mary Surratt's (John Surratt's mother) boarders. He was sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson along with Samuel Mudd, Michael O'Laughlen and Edmund Spangler. In 1869 he was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson. Arnold, Mudd and Spangler were released. (O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867.) When Samuel Arnold returned home he lived quietly out of the public eye for more than thirty years. In 1898 he returned to Fort Jefferson and took photographs of his old prison. Unfortunately, these photographs have not survived. In 1902, Arnold wrote a series of newspaper articles for the Baltimore American describing his imprisonment at Fort Jefferson. Arnold died four years later on September 21, 1906. He is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the second to last conspirator to have died (John Surratt being the last).

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